Playstation Meeting 2013: See (Portions of) the Future, Part II

Did all of
the hardware announcement stuff bore you? Well, good news! This post is all
about the software shown at the Playstation Meeting. Now, that’s not to say
they showed  a lot of titles, but it was
enough.

 

This string
of games began with Sony’s first-party titles, beginning with a new IP called Knack. This is an action/platformer
apparently developed by Sony Computer Entertainment’s Japan Studio, and the
aforementioned Mark Cerny had a hand in its development. Sony provided a twist
with not presenting a drab, colorless, and gritty war shooter as their first
title — but don’t worry, that’s coming later. Knack looks like the kind of
game whose concept would have been concocted during the PSOne era, and I mean
that in a good way. An
overview of the game was provided through an in-game narration from a character
voiced by Jennifer Hale. It’s not the most impressive-looking next
generation title you’ll see graphically, but it’s endearing.

 

Sony also
used this game to demonstrate the PS4 remote play feature. You can stop a game
in progress at any time, and move it to Vita, similar to the connection between
the Wii U console and its tablet controller. Hopefully it fixes the problem
Remote Play titles previously had, with horrible lag time. Their aim is to have
every PS4 game playable on Vita, so we’ll see if that happens.

 

I’m sure
plenty of people needed a gritty shooter to sell them on a system, so enter Killzone: Shadow Fall. Interestingly,
Shadow Fall’s setting for the demo wasn’t a gritty, war-torn battlefield, but a
futuristic metropolis — though that’s not to say the entire game will take
place there. It did have plenty of shooting and stabbing, though. It didn’t
look as impressive as many high-end PC games (like the recently released Crysis 3), but
it looked good enough, especially since it’s a launch title. It was also
apparently running on a kit less powerful than the PS4, so hopefully Guerilla
has time to polish it before the holiday season.

 

Have you
ever wanted to experience the true thrill of car porn in a game? Well, Driveclub for PS4 is for you. It’s a
racing game developed by Evolution Studios (of the Motorstorm games), and has a focus on racing in teams. The game is
driven by the PS4’s social aspects, allowing you to connect and keep contact
with players through both PSN and smartphone apps. They
didn’t show much of the game, but they’ll have plenty of time to in the
future.

 

Another
PS4 exclusive is the sequel to a franchise established on PS3: inFAMOUS: Second Son. It takes place
just outside Seattle, seven years after inFAMOUS
2, starring a new protagonist: 24-year-old Deslin Rowe. He’s one of
numerous subjects apprehended by the Department of Unified Protection for being
a bio-terrorist, but he’s not going to comply with their methods. With the way
the game was introduced, discussing how organizations keep an all-too-careful
watch of citizens to invade their privacy, we thought it was leading to a
demonstration of Watch_Dogs. Don’t
be surprised if this is the beginning of a trend. No footage of the actual game
was shown, sadly.

 

Quantic
Dream is also working on something for PS4, and demonstrated that by showing
the face model of an old man, and adjusting his emotions. It looked excellent
(provided the actual game will look like that), their game is obviously far
off. Keep in mind they’re also releasing Beyond:
Two Souls for PS3 later this year.

 

That was it
for Sony’s first-party titles. A next generation installment of Gran Turismo and The Last Guardian were conspicuous in their absence.

 

Sony also
wants to keep their relationship with indie developers, like Braid’s Jonathan Blow, who presented
his new game: The Witness. Not much
of the game was shown, but the
trailer provided made it look like Myst
for a new generation, with a far more colorful art style. The game is still due
for PC and iOS, but Blow mentioned that the PS4 will be the only console you
can play it on at first.

 

There were plenty of third-party studios in
attendance too, starting with Capcom and producer Yoshinori Ono. We were about
87 minutes into the show, and Ono was the first Japanese developer on stage.
That goes to show you how much the market and industry have changed. Ono didn’t
present anything fighting game-related, but wanted to show the next generation
of their internal MT Framework graphics engine, called Panta Rhei. This was
demonstrated by showing the first look at a new IP, tentatively titled Deep Down. It was one of the most
graphically impressive demos at the show, though the game itself looks
remarkably similar to their own Dragon’s
Dogma. Hopefully the final game looks like that.

 

Square Enix
showed up to present…absolutely nothing new. They showed Agni’s Philosophy: Final Fantasy
again, and claimed it was running on PS4 hardware. Final Fantasy producer
Shinji Hashimoto mentioned that a new FF game is in development, but they’re
saving the details for E3. It was the “bathroom break” moment of the show.

 

Returning
the show to entertaining material: Ubisoft came with a new Watch_Dogs gameplay demonstration, which looked as impressive as
ever. We previously thought the last demonstration from E3 last year hinted
at some online multiplayer and social features, but this one made it look like
a single-player game. It’s coming this holiday season for PS4, but it’s also
hitting PS3, 360, PC, and Wii U. The demo, by the way, was running on a PC with
PS4 specs.

 

Blizzard
Entertainment made a surprise appearance, and announced that Diablo 3 is making its way to PS3 and
PS4. This is their first console game since the late 90s, by the way. This
version will allow for four-player local co-op, with every character being
displayed on one screen. The
PS3 version will be shown at PAX East near the end of March.

 

For the last
game, Activision
and Bungie showed off the next gen version of Destiny, which
they couldn’t show on Sunday. Both the PS3 and PS4 versions will be
available at launch, which
we now know is definitely next year, and the Playstation versions will have
exclusive content.

 

This was
quite a show, one of the best Sony’s put on in recent memory. But there were a
few aspects missing. There weren’t many Japanese third-parties there, but some
western juggernauts like EA and Take Two were conspicuously absent. Maybe the
latter two developers are saving their exclusive reveals for Microsoft’s
conference. Anyway, look forward to the E3 conference in mid-June for a look at
the system and a price! Hopefully it’s not $599.